Cushwa - The Beer Thrillers

Two Years Later – Brewfests with Anxiety

AmyMWolfe — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:44:43 +0000

A selfie at the Cushwa Brewfest (Amy and Ben)

Two Years Later – Same Brewfest – Same Anxiety

I went to another Brewfest and didn’t have a panic attack. Two years later and it’s still a major win. A crowded event is always a stressor, even just a crowded restaurant can send me into a tailspin. Coming back to the Cushwa Brewing Co for the 7^th Anny Brewfest celebration I was reminded of the 5^th anniversary two years ago. (Brewfests with Anxiety)

Cushwa Brewfest Glassware

The 7^th Anny was held at the Cushwa Brewing Co. tasting room shared with Rad pies. It was a congested area and bumping into other Brewfest goers was inevitable. I think by the end we all were done apologizing to each other for it.

It was a decent weather day for a Saturday in January. I was so glad we could take advantage of the picnic benches outside of the tasting room. For some reason I had an idea in my head that I needed to feel as carefree as I did two years ago; that I had to absolutely not feel any anxiety about entering a crowded event space. I am not sure why we build these unfair expectations in our minds sometimes but it’s a silly waste of energy.

Also it’s been a crazy two years since the last Cushwa Brewfest: I got a new job, I moved in with my boyfriend and we had a baby together. I’ve had a rough time adjusting to motherhood in my forties and I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have him.

The beers at the brewfest were absolutely wonderful. We loved the RAR offerings, the Crooked Crab barrel aged beers were fantastic, Fidens was a good TIPA, and there were so many different options and different styles. It was nice to see that it wasn’t just “here’s an IPA” “here’s another IPA” “and oh look, another IPA”, there were lots of varieties and different styles, and from breweries from all over which was a nice change of pace too.

Ben Taking Over

Amy has been working on this column piece since… pretty much since we got back from Cushwa and Williamsport, MD. After the brewfest we did a small share with friends at the hotel, just like we had two years ago, and the day after we hit a few breweries on the way back home (we hit Interchange Brewing, Amani Brewing, Thick n Thin Brewing, Upper Stem Brewing, and Fourscore Beer). She asked me to help finish our the column for her since she’s been struggling with it a bit. Its certainly not easy doing weekly columns, and especially about one with such a serious and delicate issue – and even moreso because of how close it hits to the bone on this one.

This is a serious matter, and one that is definitely not to be taken lightly or a joke. Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc are all big deep issues, and something many, many, many, many, many people face. Most without having someone to talk to about it. Most without having a chance to discuss their very serious issues and thoughts with someone.

Thank you to Amy for talking about her issues, and her fight against anxiety. Its great to see her being able to step out of that, to overcome it, and get to go have fun at events like this. Her Brewfests with Anxiety post is perfectly worded and she does an absolutely amazing job of discussing it.

The Overnight Walk

Dealing with mental illness is NOT easy either by living with it yourself or supporting a loved one living with mental illness. This summer I will be walking 16 miles overnight in Boston in the out of the darkness walk. This walk is very important and supports the American Foundation for Suicide Prevent in Funding Research for Suicide Prevention, Create and Distribute Education Programs, Advocate for Public Policy and Support Those Affected by Suicide. Please consider donating here: https://www.theovernight.org/participant/45186

Amy’s Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

(And please take a moment to fill out Amy’s survey on her ‘Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles‘ column.)

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Cushwa 7th Anniversary Beer Fest

B. Kline — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:23:52 +0000

Cushwa’s Beer Fest is Back

After a one year hiatus – the Cushwa Brewing Company Anniversary Beer Fest is back. Two years ago in 2022 they had their 5th Anniversary Beer Fest; and now in January 2024 – its back with their 7th Anniversary Celebration.

You can view the event page here: Cushwa 7th Anny Beer Fest.

The event page description reads:

Ready to join us in celebrating our 7th Anniversary?

Believe it or not, we’re turning lucky number , and we can’t wait to blow out the candles with you on January 27th! We’ve invited an incredible lineup of over 50+ of our best beer buds to pour their favorites just for you. And let’s talk about the food – @radpiesmd will be serving up championship Detroits all day, while @eatfiftyfifty’s food truck will be smashing out their signature patties. To keep the vibe alive, @dj_bizzy will be spinning throughout the fest, join us in Williamsport, MD for a day you won’t want to miss.

There ain’t no party like a Cushwa party, so mark your calendars now and snag your tickets before we sell out!

Tickets for our 7th Anniversary Beer Fest are available via Linktree in our bio or directly through this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/771786372817
Cushwa 7th Anny Beer Fest

The original Facebook announcement by Cushwa shows just how much they love their brewfests:

Everyone knows you can’t have a 7th Anniversary Beer Fest without amazing food and music. Rad Pies Rad Pies will be serving up championship Detroits all day, while Fifty Fifty food truck Fifty Fifty will be smashing out their signature patties. To keep the vibe alive, DJ Bizzy will be spinning throughout the fest.

Swipe left to witness our stellar brewery lineup that’s expanding by the day – more surprises brewing soon! Secure your tickets and join us

to celebrate some of the best beer from across the country on Saturday, January 27th from 12-4pm at our Williamsport taproom location! Ticket purchase includes 7th anniversary taster glass and unlimited sampling.

General Admission tickets available through the direct link below or our Linktree in the bio. Designated Drivers, join us for free—no ticket needed!

#cushwa #cushwa7thanniversarybeerfestival #cushwabrewing #cushwabrewingco

#cushwalove #maryland #craftbeer #beerfest #beerfestival
Cushwa Brewing Company – Facebook Post

Featured Breweries

Cushwa 7th Anniversary Brewfest – List of Featured Breweries

This is one heck of a list of breweries. You have some of the absolute best of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Washington D.C., and even further – some coming from California, Tennessee, Florida, etc.

Here is the full list:

Brewery Lineup:

@450northbrewingco
@amanibrewing
@arkane_aleworks
@blackflagbrewingco
@bluejacketdc
@babbrewingco
@burleyoak
@burnishbeerco
@chsfermentory
@commonwealthbrewco
@coven.brewing
@crookedcrabbeer
@crookedrunfermentation
@dancinggnome
@deciduousbeer
@definitivebrewing
@deweybeerco
@eqbrewery
@funguysbrewing
@fidensbrewing
@foambrewers
@fourscorebeerco
@frequentembrewingco_
@heavyreelbrewingco
@heistbrewery
@highlandparkbrewery
@imprintbeerco
@interchangebrewery
@kingsbrewingco
@magnifybrewing
@monumentcitybrewing
@mortalisbrewing
@northparkbeerco
@ocelotbrewing
@oddbynaturebrewing
@oozlefinchbeers
@otherhalfnyc
@prototypebrewery
@rarbrew
@residentculture
@sandcitybrewery
@sapwoodcellars
@schillingbeerco
@seekbeerco
@sojournfermentory
@southerngristbrewing
@troegsbeer
@untoldbrewing
@vitaminseabrewing
@widowmakerbrew
@wildeastbrewing
@xulbeer

New New Additions:
@adroittheory
@antietambrewery
@orchestratedmindsbrewing
7th Anniversary Beer Fest – Event Brite Page

Fidens?! Adroit Theory? Xul Brewing? RAR Brewing? Southern Grist? Resident Culture? Burley Oak? Dewey? Crooked Crab? Other Half? Fourscore? Dancing Gnome? Black Flag?

Sign us up!

This is an absolute star studded lineup, and we can’t wait. Amy and I will be going. Looking to meet up with a lot of the Central PA Whalerz and hopefully doing a beer share afterwards as well. (Because… why not do a beer share after a mammoth four hour brewfest?)

Unlike the 5th Anniversary Event where Amy and I took the Friday off, and made a huge brewery trip out of it, this year, we’re just going to be going down Saturday morning, hitting up the brewfest, spending the night, and then hitting a few breweries on the way home Sunday. Still a lot of fun, but possibly a little bit more laid back. (Possibly.)

Tickets

Tickets… tickets… tickets here! Did you get your tickets yet? What? You didn’t? Why not! Get them right here:

7th Anniversary Beer Fest

More Information on Cushwa Brewing Company

The following comes from Untappd. Cushwa Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Williamsport, Maryland. They have 465 unique beers, and over 231,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 4.07 (as of 12.26.23.) Their Untappd description reads: Based in Williamsport, MD just minutes away from the historic and scenic C&O Canal used by many for cycling, running, walking and other recreational activities. Our large modern taproom offers plenty of seating and fun while you sip on beer offerings with friends. Hungry? We have partnered with Rad Pies who offer brick-oven Neapolitan style pizza and much more! Our mission is simple: Exceptional Beer. Positive Impact. Respect.

You can follow them on social media at the following pages:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

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Prototype Brewery Invitational

B. Kline — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 23:17:00 +0000

Prototype Brewery Invitational – 4.30.22

A Brewfest Two Years in the Making

In a lot of ways, this is a brewfest two years in the making. Its also kind of a brewfest filling a void that got left open two years ago.

See, there was this little thing called… “covid” or as we knew it better then – “coronavirus” two years ago, and that pretty much put a lockdown on everything in the brewery industry. As a result, the Prototype Brewery Invitational in 2020 got put on hold, hiatus, seemingly cancelled, until now. Also as a result of that (as part of many factors), the Harrisburg Beer Week also came to a close.

So now we fast forward to 2022, and in one week we are finally getting the long awaited Prototype Brewery Invitational.

Prototype Brewery and Meadery

The Prototype Brewery and Meadery has been in ‘start up’ mode for two (two plus) years now. Partly the love and brain child of Kevin Keller (also the event organizer for this), of Evil Genius credit and fame. The brewfest is partly celebration of all their friends that they are hoping to do collaborations in the future with (and ones Kevin has done work with in the past) and sort of a kick off to whenever they finally open. (No date yet.)

Prototype Brewery and Meadery has been pouring at events for a bit of time now, most notably was recently at the Cushwa 5th Anniversary. Kevin Keller is good people, and I love the idea of both a brewery and meadery in one, so I am eagerly awaiting their opening.

The Brewfest

List of Breweries for the Brewfest

This is absolutely looking like a killer brewfest lineup! Check out this lineup from their ticket page:

Abomination Brewing Company

Against the Grain Brewery

Aslin Beer Company

Beat Street Beer Project

Boneshire Brew Works

Bottle Logic Brewing

Burnish Beer Co.

Cellar Works Brewing

Chatty Monks Brewing

Cinderlands Beer Co

Civil Society Brewing

Collusion Tap Works

Cushwa Brewing Company

Dancing Gnome Beer

Dewey Beer Company

Dream State Brewing

Ever Grain Brewing Co.

Fourscore Beer Co.

Funguys Brewing

Great Notion Brewing

Grist House

Hidden River Brewing Company

Hidden Springs Ale Works

Hitchhiker Brewing

Imprint Beer Company

Ingenious Brewing Company

Lovedraft’s Brewing Co.

Narrow Gauge Brewing Company

New Trail Brewing Company

North Country Brewing Company

Ology Brewing Company

Other Half Brewing Company

Pilger Ruh Brewing

Rotunda Brewing Company

Short Throw Brewing Co.

Species X Beer Project

Tripping Animals Brewing Co.

Vitamin Sea Brewing

Wolf Brewing Co.

Yah Brew

That is a killer lineup! Other Half, Tripping Animals, Vitamin Sea, Ology, Great Notion, Civil Society, Grist House, Hitchhiker, Bottle Logic, Aslin, Cushwa, Fourscore, Dewey, Against the Grain…. …..some absolute amazing breweries.

Me and my buddy Drew have our tickets, and we got the VIP tickets to be in an extra hour. (I fully suggest going this route if any are available.)

Tickets

Tickets for the brewfest come in three types:

DD (15$)
General Admission (1PM – 4PM) (55$)
VIP (12PM – 4PM) (75$)

Additional information on each:

General Admission: GA will grant you access to samples from over 40 breweries from around the nation from 1-4pm. I’m addition, there will be live music, food vendors and plenty of brewery swag (While supplies last). A special edition tasting glass will be included in this package.
VIP: Early Entry tickets will grant you access to the sampling, music, food vendors and brewery swag an hour early from 12-4p. Select breweries will have limited beers that will be available exclusively during this hour. Have a certain brewery you absolutely need to sample beer from? Here is your opportunity!

Location

The brewfest will be at the Zembo Shrine in Harrisburg. This is a great venue for brewfests. Harrisburg Beer Week has done their Little Big Beer Fest there in the past, and other events have been there before. Its a lovely venue. Parking isn’t horrible, but its not the best. I obviously highly highly highly highly recommend Uber or Lyft or getting dropped off, but if you do have a DD, there should be enough parking.

Some general rules and FAQ:

– Each ticket is permitted one entry.

– Must be 21+ to consume alcohol. Must have valid proof of ID.

– Must 21+ to attend

– No ticket or event wristband sharing is allowed.

– We ask that you please do not arrive before 11am

– No backpack or large bags allowed in venue

– No Pets allowed

– No refunds on any ticket sales

– Event is rain or shine

– Tickets are not transferable

– Parking Information TBA

To get your tickets you can go to their Eventbrite page here: Prototype Brewery Invitational – Tickets.

They have hinted that in the upcoming days before the brewfest that they will be posting a beer tap list for each brewery. Can’t wait to see what these amazing breweries will be pouring!

(Post notice: I just saw that their ticket page list of breweries isn’t inclusive of some of the later additions, or they just missed putting some on it. But the logo pictures I have at the top of the heading show all of the 46 breweries that will be there. Some more notable breweries are Heist Brewing, Human Robot, and Hop Butcher!)

For More Information

For more information on the brewfest and to stay connected, check out the following pages:

Thanks For Reading

Are you going to the brewfest? If so what breweries are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments! I think I’m gonna be wearing my Mandalorian RAR shirt, so see if you can find me and we can clink some glasses together.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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Cushwa Brewing Company 5th Anniversary Celebration

B. Kline — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 03:25:00 +0000

Cushwa Brewing Company 5 Year Anniversary Celebration

Five Days Away

We are five days away from the five year celebration. So its a perfect time to run it down and get hyped about it. Sadly, the VIP and the general admission tickets have been sold out (for quite some time), but for those of us able to go (myself and writer friend) it will certainly be an event not to be missed. The first brew fest of the year (for us anyway) and we can’t wait for it!

This one certainly looks like a doozy and one that will be remembered for quite some time.

Let’s take a look at the brewery’s Facebook photos as a gallery to get an idea:

What the Event Is

Cushwa 5 Year Celebration Event

Firstly, as you can see – the VIP and General Admission are both sold out. You might be able to find tickets second hand online, but be very cautious of scammers. Cushwa has posted on their photos page that they have caught some people selling fake or scammed up tickets.

The VIP session is 75$ and lasts from 12 – 5, (giving the attendee an extra hour), as well as a second glass and a specialty bottle. The bottle alone really makes the extra 25$ worth value right there, but add in the perks of an extra hour of drinking, plus a second glass, and its definitely worth it.

The general admission is from 1 – 5, comes with a commemorative taster glass (like most brewfests do), and allows unlimited sampling. For both sessions there is over 50 breweries, which we will get to in just a bit.

There is also DD (designated driver / aka ‘non drinking buddy’) access to the event as well for just 5$.

Who All is Invited

List of Participating Breweries

So, this is one hell of a list of breweries that is coming and serving up liquid gold for everyone. With many stand – outs.

The full list of breweries include:

Adroit Theory
Amani Brothers
Aslin Brewing
Barrel Culture
Bearded Iris
Black Flag Brewing
Bluejacket Brewing
Branch and Blade
Burnish Beer Co
Charles Towne Fermentory
Commonwealth Brewing
Crooked Crab
Crooked Run Fermentation
Dancing Gnome
Definitive Brewing
Deciduous Brewing
Dewey Beer Co
Divine Barrel
Ever Grain Brewing Co
Finback Brewing
Fourscore Beer Co
Good Word
Graft
Heavy Reel
Heist Brewing
Homaide Brewing
Imprint Beer Co
Inu Island
Kings
Mortallis
Mountains Walking
Ocelot Brewing
Odd by Nature
Oozlefinch
Other Half Brewing
Prototype Brewing
RAR Brewing
Resident Culture
Sapwood Cellars
Schilling
Sojourn
Southern Grist
Suffolk Punch
Thin Man Brewing
Triple Crossing
Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Untold
Vitamin Sea
Wet City
Widowmaker
Beer Zombies
The Maryland Mob

Woooooooheeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Thats a line up! Some stand out favorites and interests are definitely Adroit Theory, Barrel Culture, Bearded Iris, Deciduous, Dewey Beer Co, Finback, Fourscore, Good Word, Mortallis, Ocelot, Oozlefinch, Other Half, RAR, Southern Grist, Triple Crossing, and Vitamin Sea.

But you certainly can’t go wrong with any from that list! Its a nice combination of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Pennsylvania breweries, as well as some other heavy hitters thrown into the mix.

Food

Food Vendors

The food options are:

Food For Thought
The Highroller Lobster Co.
Rad Pies

So there is some variety and enough food choices to be had for the four or five hour sessions. (If you see me veering for the lobster in a drunken haze, just kick me away so I don’t trigger my shellfish allergies. Thanks!)

Anything Else Fun?

DJ and Glassware Also Announced

There will also be a DJ on hand – DJ Bizzy, and just recently announced Thicc Bois Glass will also be on hand selling some dope hand blown glassware. They’ve worked with Tattered Flag and a few other breweries in the past to make some really fantastic glassware.

Pumped

Are you pumped? Are you going? I’m pumped. I have finally gotten my days changed at work – and now have off Friday and Saturday (rather than Thursday and Friday); only took me 10 years of working at the casino, to finally get up to having off a weekend day. I also put in a special request and got the Sunday off for travel home.

With the can release for Burley Oak the day before (Friday – Jan. 21st), we are looking to make this quite a trip. Coming down from the Hummelstown area to get to Burley Oak, and then make our way over towards Cushwa (a bit over three hours across Maryland, after driving three hours to Burley Oak), we will be stopping and hitting some fabulous breweries on the way. Then spending the night in the Williamsport area, before stopping by Antietam and maybe Monocacy Battlefields (again), and a few more breweries before making our way back home up into Pennsylvania.

Be sure to check out our travelogues and travel stories here on the blog for many of our wacky adventures through the Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia states that we’ve had the recent months. Also, be sure to check out the following Cushwa articles:

Thanks For Reading

Will you be attending? Know anyone who is? Thoughts on the brewfest or the line up of breweries? Let us know in the comments or on our various social media platforms! Can’t wait to hear from you!

(Also, be sure to stay tuned for a special ‘cold’ beer review tomorrow, and another Star Wars beer review on Wednesday, which will likewise be a ‘cold’ beer review.)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

BKline — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 13:21:00 +0000

Peace Among Worlds by Cushwa Brewing Company

Happy Father’s Day

Well, let’s first get it right out of the way – Happy Father’s Day to everyone. To all the hard working, hard drinking, rooting, tooting, son of a gun’s….. or… well, you know…. just the dads. The everyday scmucks, the real slubs, the dads of the burbs. The men who work and the men who help. The men who just make it through each week somehow by the skin of their teeth.

No matter what – no matter how you cut it, thank you to all the dad’s out there. Because, let’s be honest, if it weren’t for them, in a biological speaking sense – we wouldn’t be here. Hopefully all the dads out there can sit back, relax today, watch a baseball game, or the US Open (the 121st US Open), have a beer (or two, or three), a cigar (if he so chooses), and some nice grilled steak or burgers.

…..Unlike me, who is spending the day working. Le. Sigh. x1000.

Anyway…. moving on….

Peace Among the Worlds

Can such a thing really happen? Can there be peace amongst the worlds? Can there be peace on our own world? Best we ask Rick and Morty, well, specifically Rick.

In the sixth episode of season two – “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” – Rick demonstrates that “flipping the bird” means “peace among worlds” to aliens. A basic synopsis of the episode can be described as such: “When Rick’s car breaks down, he and Morty go inside its battery. Morty discovers that Rick has created a miniature universe inside the battery.” (The Ricks Must Be Crazy – Rick and Morty Fandom – Wikipedia Page)

If you YouTube “Peace Among Worlds” you’ll see its Rick and Morty coming down into the cube to figure out why the battery is no longer working. Rick tells Morty to wait for the ramp to fully land, that the people love it, and then he tells Morty to flip all of the inhabitants off. Morty seems hesitant, but Rick tells him he explained it to the inhabitants as meaning “peace among worlds”.

Cushwa Brewing Company

You can read our brewery review of their original location (back on August 15th, 2019) here: Brewery Review: Cushwa Brewing Company. You can also read about me and Ming’s hike at Catoctin Mountain and then visiting several area breweries including Cushwa Brewing at their new location, as well as Homaide Brewing which is located at the OLD Cushwa Brewing Company’s building.

They are located in Williamsport, Maryland. Close to the Antietam Battlefield, and not too far from Pennsylvania and only a hop skip and a throw from Central PA where we are located here at The Beer Thrillers.

Their new location is a lot bigger than their old facility (A LOT BIGGER, and a lot more impressive, better looking, and all around better). Not to say that the old place is horrible, or anything, just to show the scale of how they’ve grown. Homaide is making good use of their old place.

On Untappd they list Cushwa Brewing Company as a Micro Brewery from Williamsport MD. As of June 20th, 2021 they have 263 unique beers and a total of 112,000+ ratings. Their average rating is 4.11. Their Untappd description reads: Cushwa Brewing Co. is located along the C&O Canal in Williamsport, MD. We are passionate in creating innovative beer offerings that we are proud for you to experience and share with friends. Our mission is simple: Exceptional Beer. Positive Impact. Respect.

I honestly cannot recommend them enough, having been to both brewery locations, as well as picking up several of their beers (be on the lookout for more beer reviews from them on the future here on The Beer Thrillers), I have loved every single one I’ve had from them. They are 100% a must-visit and must-try brewery.

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds

Ok, so finally, if this is what you’ve been waiting for, we’ve arrived at it – the actual beer review. So let’s finally get to it then!

Peace Among Worlds by Cushwa Brewing Company

Beer: Peace Among Worlds
Brewery: Cushwa Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Imperial Double / New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: 35
Untappd Write-Up: Peace Among Worlds, our collaboration with White Rabbit Gastropub in Frederick, MD was brewed to commemorate our one year anniversary. This hazy DIPA is loaded with Citra, Mosaic, Vic Secret, and Enigma hops.

For those unfamiliar with my beer reviews, you can see and read more of my beer reviews (as well as Josh’s and LetUsDrinkBeer’s) through the tag / category at the link here – Beer Reviews. Basically I break it down into three categories – aroma, appearance, and taste, and I discuss each of these categories. So, cracking open the beer and pouring it out, and of course, got to keep the cartoon vibe going, so using a Bob’s Burger’s glass. (Keeping it classy.)

As soon as you crack this, you get a great whiff and instant aroma of hop. Its bright and juicy smelling hops straight through. The Vic Secret and Mosaic hops really pop out give a very distinctive aroma. Enigma hops are a relatively newer hop breed and variety coming from Australia. There is so many exciting hop varieties that are new from Australia and New Zealand, that are all so perfect for New England style IPAs. The Enigma adds a slight nuance to this with its ‘red fruit’ aroma and taste.

Appearance is pretty much on par with 99.999999% of the New England IPAs and DIPAs and even TIPAs that you’ve seen. There’s not a whole ton of variation in the style for New England IPAs really. Which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t leave much to say about it. If you’ve seen three or four NE-IPAs, you’ve seen ’em all just about. (Though I have had some interesting ones, and some poorly done funky ones that just looked bad.) That seems to be the easier thing, is finding which NE-IPAs are BAD NE-IPAs by the way they look. This one, is certainly, not bad. By, any, stretch, of any usage of definition. This is a bright orange hazy glow, not fully opaque, but definitely not transparent either. Some sediment and haze, but nothing too bad, no crazy floating chunks that make it look disgusting. Pretty beer all around. Small foamy head.

But let’s take a moment to appreciate the taste of this bad boy. And hmmm, this is a delicious beer. This is a juicy New England (Double) IPA bomb. Full juice, full taste bud explosion here. Happy Father’s Day. Happy Rick and Morty Season Premier day. Happy beer day! This is certainly fruity, citrus, and hoppy. The Mosaic, Vic Secret, and Enigma hops really shine and you get their full flavor profile in this intense beer. The Citra hops round out these and give it just a powerful citrus hop flavor profile. This is very tropical and juicy from the mosaic hops, with just a bit of earthy undertones; from the Vic Secret you get a bit more Vic Secret provides some notes of pineapple, passionfruit, it also helps gives some pine notes to the Mosaic’s earthy undertones, lending a bit of a resinous taste. The Citra hops are obviously providing a more heavy citrus flavor to the beer, lending it notes of grapefruit, melon, lime, and this just boosts the overall juicy flavor of the beer. The enigma hops are interesting in this, as they give off notes of red fruit and berry, you get somewhat of a white raspberry or even grape like taste from it, a bit of a wine – like flavoring profile to go along with the fruity and citrus and tropical juice notes of the other hops. It all makes for a really wonderful and interesting balance. The mouth feel for this is really good too, nothing is watery, nothing is too thin, it just tastes like a beer, proportionate and with a wonderful consistency. Nothing cloying, nothing off flavored, no off flavors or aromas or anything wrong with it. This is a really well crafted beer, not surprising at all coming from Cushwa Brewing, as I’ve yet to have anything less than even average or subpar from them. They know how to create their beers, that’s for damn sure. If you happen to be in the Williamsport (Maryland) area, or just want to make the drive, or find their beers on the shelf; do yourself a favor and stop in or pick up the beer and try them out. You won’t be disappointed at all.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.12 (as of 6.20.21)

Thank you everyone for reading. Hope you all have a wonderful Father’s Day today, and I hope the Rick and Morty Season premier tonight lives up to the hype. (I have no doubt it will.) Love me some Rick and Morty. Such a fantastic show.

Leave your favorite Rick and Morty quotes in the comments section! Also, be sure to check out our other Pop Culture and Nerd Culture beer reviews below.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)

Pro Wrestling:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Other:

Thanks for reading everyone!

Brewery Hopping – 12.27.19

BKline — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 13:47:56 +0000

The 2019 Holiday Reserve by Boneshire Brew Works, our first stop on our brewery hopping journey.

Want to take a trip with us? A journey along Harrisburg? C’mon, it’ll be fun. You get to hang out with me, and my buddy, and we basically do nothing but chat about Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Coen Brothers movies, how we were so disappointed by the sequel trilogy, about the blog, about the podcasts, we run into other friends, chat with bar patrons, and generally have a good time.

So why not join us? We hit several stops in the Harrisburg area. Not as many as originally wanted, and not all of the places we wanted, but we jumped around, had some fun, and called it a day and were happy. So no complaints there! Can never be upset with a day out with friends, beer, and no stress. Plus…. we got to pet a baby corgi… so there’s that too!

I have written a bit, here on this blog, and for Breweries in PA, as well as the Let Us Drink Beer blog about the breweries around Hershey and Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania. Mostly recap articles on the locations, taps, places, atmosphere, beers, etc. The bigger – main article can be found here: “Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg“. The blog post that is primarily a link to the Breweries in PA article with a few bits of new information can be found here: “Touring Through the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg“. The actual Breweries in PA article is here: “Breweries Around Harrisburg (BiPA)“. And of course, the last article of the series, the larger one yet – that also delves into the breweries of Hershey PA can be found here on the blog Let Us Drink Beer: “Breweries Around Hershey and Harrisburg PA.” I do guest work and contribute to the Let Us Drink Beer blog, so make sure you check them out and my other articles there, like my review of the Pretoria Fields Collective Walker Station Stout. (I also did a review of it here for my blog: Walker Station Stout. For more information on Let Us Drink Beer’s Blog and to just check them out, their blog home page can be found here: “Let Us Drink Beer“.)

Lets start off with the pre-adventure details. First off, the events of this day occurred on December 27th, 2019. A Friday – and my day off (my days off are Thursdays and Fridays for now, before they change soon after the new year). Having worked the week, including Christmas, and spending the night of Christmas with family, and then spending Thursday with more family, Friday was a day for me and friends. I still got some crucial stuff done pre-noon, I finished reading a chapter book with my youngest daughter, I got the Autumn beer review blog up, did some minor editing on the Sap Beer Review and The Hog beer review (website formatting changes) and I walked my dog. So, noontime, dog home, I shower up, and head out to Boneshire Brew Works to meet up with Drew for the first leg of our trip.

(A final in-line, late note, just before publishing this, instead of listing the beers with the brewery we had them at, I decided to put them at the end, categorized by brewery / location and gave bare-bones information from Untappd on them. I’ll leave my rating with them as well, but not go into a full break-down beer review of them. So if you wish just to see what Drew and I drank, you can jump to the end of the article.)

Boneshire Brew Works – stop number one.

As anyone who knows me and has read this blog, Boneshire Brew Works is typically home base of operations. Its about three-five minutes from my house, right by Rutter’s, right off of Nye’s Road and on Derry Street. Close enough for my friend Drew to meet us there, and its also not too far out from where Dan lives (near Breski’s Beverage). A lot of other friends are close by too, from the Hummelstown, Middletown, and Harrisburg areas. Even from Hershey – its not a stretch of a drive. So its always a great place to meet up; plus the beer is superb, the atmosphere is nice, the bartenders and beertenders all know us, and its just a great place to hang out.

I got there about five minutes before Drew, and ordered the newest beer on the menu – The 2019 Holiday Reserve. A tradition now, at Boneshire, its always a glorious beer to end the year on. One of a handful of great NE-IPA style beers in the area, its usually one of the best, and always fantastic straight from the tap. And this year’s was no exception. After Drew gets there he orders the same, and we spend a good twenty minutes nursing our first beer of the day at lunch-time while discussing the intricacies of Star Wars; including The Mandalorian’s season finale (which had just dropped that morning), as well as how bad Rise of Skywalker was and the sequel trilogy as a whole, how bad the prequel trilogy was, how there’s now more bad to good movies in the Star Wars canon, how some of the books fit into the movies, etc.

We also talked about the next jump on the tour – The Vegetable Hunter, about them teaming up with the Harris Family, and other things beer related in the area. We discussed maybe checking out the BBQ place that is home to Pizza Boy’s secondary location; but decided to skip it, and decided to skip Newfangled Brew Works since with Drew, thats basically home number two. I’ve been to The Vegetable Hunter one time, but quite a long time ago, soon after they added the mini-micro-nano-brewery part to it. So I settle up the tab with James behind the bar, talk a bit about heading on some brewery jumping, and then we’re off to the city proper.

Now, it should be noted, number one, I am horrible at getting to any place. I’ll get there. No doubt about it, but it won’t be right, will consist of wrong turns, driving on one way roads, and being a bit late…. but I’ll get us there. And case in point was getting here. Next thing we know, we’re crossing the bridge and the river and turning around on Erford Road and heading back, finally finding a parking spot in front of the restaurant turned brewery.

Brother of Thor! by The Vegetable Hunter

I don’t know much about The Vegetable Hunter unfortunately. I do know its a super tiny micro / nano – brewery, and I know that Tim Myers is the head brewer. He is also the head brewer for River Bend Hop Farm – you can check out a review of their Dry Irish Stout I did. I was there at their brewery a year ago (on the 28th, it came up in my ‘memories’). Fantastic brewery and facility and the beers were great. Tim definitely produces some great beers.

I’m not vegan or vegetarian, and neither is Drew. So we didn’t order anything to eat. (Not saying you HAVE to be vegan or vegetarian to eat there, but its more likely to appeal to those who are.) Not sure if they do flights of beer there or not, I think they might, but the two kids behind the food counter who were finishing up an order for the family that was in the place eating (six or seven people with a small child) and doing a lot of cleaning (dishes / glasses) didn’t mention it. We each ordered a pint. I ordered the Brother of Thor! and Drew ordered Today’s Tom Sawyer. Their on-screen board listed only four beers. But their Untappd app lists six. I have also heard (after the fact) that they have an upstairs. Not sure if that was open when we got there or not, but they probably have more taps up there.

Brother of Thor! was tasty and delicious. Drew also said the Today’s Tom Sawyer was also good. Both are IPAs and were neither super hoppy or super bitter, but also not NE-IPAs. We would both recommend them to anyone traveling in the area. Can’t say anything about the food (sorry), but we both enjoyed our beers, the relaxed, hipster, like atmosphere, and overall thought it was a pleasant time there. We didn’t stay long, (not long enough to use our full hour of parking meter time – 3$, right in front of the restaurant), but we enjoyed our beer, and chatting, and stayed for probably twenty – thirty minutes.

After leaving, we decided the next stop would be The Millworks, since its close by. Did a few turns here and there and parked next to the Market. And went inside to the Millworks, which even at 2:30-3PM was pretty full with the bar nearly packed (luckily found two seats together) with lots of people eating.

A beer flight from The Millworks; stop number three on our trip.

Sidled ourselves up to the bar and plopped down. Ordered myself a flight, Drew ordered a pint, and got himself the brisket pizza. Drew typically always does pints rather than flights, and I typically will do flights whenever possible – to try as much as I can. Especially if its a venue I’m not likely to get to all that often.

My flight consisted of Winter Saison, Cherrywood Rauchbier, Kiwi Berry Gose, Triple IPA. Drew ordered the Market Day Session IPA.

Once we ordered and he ordered his food, the pizza arrived pretty quickly. I enjoyed the Saison, the Rauchbier was a nice, smokey, malty tasty drink, the Gose was a little bland, and not quite as interesting as I’d hope, but the Triple IPA made up for it and was very tasty, juicy, and hoppy. Drew enjoyed his Market Day IPA (I had it once before and found it enjoyable myself).

Drew said the brisket pizza was delicious. While here, we discussed various ongoing TV shows that we are still watching and looking forward to of upcoming seasons, like Fargo, HBO’s Righteous Gems, and of course still The Mandalorian. We broke down Coen Brothers movies, like A Serious Man, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and talked about how interesting it was for that show to be made (the Fargo show). We also talked about upcoming podcasts including me and Esteban doing one about LOST, a show which Drew had never watched.

While closing out and debating how far to stray from Harrisburg and getting texts from Dan Arndt that he’s getting off work and wants to jump in on the festivities, the bartender pointed out that it was 4:15PM and that The Sturgis Speakeasy was doing their happy hour from 4-6. So since Dan usually likes to meet up at ZeroDay when in the city, we figured we’d stay local, hit up Sturgis, then meet him over there. So off we were to a “pit stop” on the brewery tour.

Goggles by New Trail Brewing Co. at The Sturgis Speakeasy, our pit stop before hitting up ZeroDay Brewing.

A hop skip away from The Millworks we found ourselves good parking beside The Sturgis Speakeasy and headed in. They had a nice tap list including several noticeably good beers, quite a few New Trail Brewing Co. beers on tap, and a pretty good bottle and can listing. Drew asked for one of the bottles on the list and was told they just sold out, and so he then settled on the New Trail Porter – Sunset. I ordered the NE IPA Goggles from New Trail which everyone has been raving about in various Facebook beer groups I’m in.

You can’t go wrong with New Trail, they seemingly haven’t made a bad or even mediocre beer yet (at least that I’ve had). I’ve had several from them before – Broken Heels, Double Broken Heels, Corvus, and I believe a sour of theirs that name eludes me at the moment. Goggles was another fantastic New England style IPA, this time a Double Imperial New England IPA. At 8.8% ABV it does give you a good punch and with the large pour at Sturgis it was really good. For my second beer I got the Porter, which was a very nice chocolate porter. Not too overpowering, not too heavy chocolate, pretty much just the right amount. A nice mixture of flavors and complexities to keep it tasty.

On the background TVs was an English Premier League soccer (or “football”) game. A roar went up at one point from the denizens of the bar as the one team scored, and me and Drew talked about my years playing and coaching soccer. Also discussed Christian Pulisic a bit and how I grew up knowing the family due to his father – Mark Pulisic – and his days playing for the Harrisburg Heat. Christian is a great kid, and Mark was a great player, coach, and all around guy. His wife (and Christian’s mom) Kelly is also a wonderful person. So its so great to see the family achieve so much success. Hopefully it also translates to the US Men’s Team finally getting better and possibly winning a World Cup some day (obviously not the next one…. ….since we didn’t even qualify….. ugh……). Side note here: if you ever want to discuss soccer – make sure you see Owen, bartender for Boneshire Brew Works, the men has forgotten more about soccer (due to concussions) than most people will ever know. Plus he’s a great dude, especially after a few.

Nearing our end at the speakeasy a nearby bar patron started chatting us up about local Harrisburg politics, and all kinds of manner of other things. Now, me and Drew will often get chatty about politics, philosophy, religion, etc – but only with ourselves, and more quiet, …and usually when we’re a lot more drunk. We tend to not jump into these kind of conversations with people we don’t know, because well… you never know how the conversations are going to go, and typically we like to follow the bar rule of “No Religion. No Politics. No Gender.” discussions. But we allowed him to talk to us about it, and we stayed neutral and listened. (Always remain neutrality when listening, always the best case scenario.)

We paid up, said goodbye to the friendly bartender lady who was very nice, and chatted to us a bit about The Mandalorian (noticing a theme with our day yet?), as well as Netflix and other TV in general, thanked her for the good beer, and we were on our way to ZeroDay.

My beer flight at ZeroDay

We park back behind Midtown Cinema and head into ZeroDay. Finding a spot at the bar we jump up, Drew orders the Financial Panther, and I get myself a flight. I also try their hard seltzer, one of the first craft brewery hard seltzers I’ve had. And I just have to say…. the style does nothing for me. No White Claws for me, no Truly Hard Seltzers, just… nope. White Claws mean no Laws is BS and I stand by it. I’ve never been a fan of carbonated water or seltzer to begin with, so making it slightly alcoholic doesn’t do enough for me. The first time I tried a hard seltzer was at Ffej of July this year from Karl Larson’s group. This was my first time trying it from a craft brewery.

My flight consisted of: Accidental Fluffer, Grievance, Smooth Metal, Mister Bubz, North St. Stout, and ZeroDay Dunkel. With an additional taster of plain Automatic Refresher (the hard seltzer).

We hung out inside for about fifteen minutes before our friend Youngblood and his girlfriend arrived. After about another five or so minutes Dan arrived, but had to stay outside because he had his corgi with him – Domino Thunderthighs. And yes, thats its actual name, and yes, the dog is totally a babe magnet and the most adorable thing since Baby Yoda – The Child. So we went outside and hung out at the picnic table, and watched the slow human avalanche of people finding out theres a nine month old corgi outside as they all came out to pet him and either go back in or head to their cars. Even the bartenders took turns coming outside to pet the dog.

Outside was a nice brisk evening, and we stayed out there til 9PM. Youngblood does stand up comedy work for various places, so we chatted some about that, his upcoming shows, some bits, we talked with Dan about his work (lung respiratory nurse), talked about our jobs (Drew as bartender, me at the casino, etc.), we talked about dogs (my border collie Leela and my new pitbull / black lab mix – Tink), Dan’s two dogs the corgi Domino Thunderthighs and his other dog Indiana Bones. Dan talked about his latest trip with his fiance Kat at Tree House Brewing Company where he brought back the beers I’ve done reviews of – Sap and Autumn. Talked about the places we stopped at today – Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, and The Millworks. Talked about local breweries in general, places like Iron Hill, Troegs, Moo-Duck, Cox Brewing, The Vineyard and Brewery at Middletown, and Spring Gate.

We got into our normal shenanigans and revelry and had a good time hanging out together. Killing an afternoon / evening. At about 915 or so, we discussed evening plans, I had to take Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works for him to get his car and I was gonna head home, Dan, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend were going back to their apartment after Dan dropped off his dog. As usual partings go, we cleaned up and took our glasses back in, gave our goodbyes to each other, walked to our cars and left. Knowing we’ll all be doing this again in a few days most likely, just chilling, relaxing, hanging out, having a good time, and drinking beers at places like ZeroDay or Boneshire or Troegs or at bars like Chick’s, Sturgis Speakeasy, The Manor, Gin Mill, The Boro, Warwick Hotel, etc. There is few things on this planet that are better than hanging out with friends, having fun, laughing, not being stressed by life or cares and just taking care of each other through communal friendship and just being with each other as we drink and bond. Its easily one of the best things about craft breweries is the communal nature of the small local craft breweries. The atmospheres and the venues and the way it brings people together to talk, hang out, have fun, and drink good delicious beers. Not even macro beers at big time bars can deliver the same kind of intimate friendship and kinship that craft breweries can give you, just based on the structure of how different the two are.

After we departed, took Drew back to Boneshire Brew Works and let him get his car. It was 9:45PM and Boneshire was soon closing for the night. Made our safe returns and trips, and had ourselves a fantastic trip basically over Harrisburg and the suburb of it a bit. We got to drink at Boneshire Brew Works, The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturgis Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Had great beer, Drew had some great food, lots of great conversations, lot of fun, and much laughter. Was a fantastic day, and a nice leadup to the end of 2019 and the end of a decade and to the start of a new year, new decade, and certainly many more adventures.

As a final note before listing the beers, I started writing this up Sunday December 29th 2019 early in the morning before work, had to go to work, wanted to finish it after work, but had a retirement party for a co-worker at Thoroughbred’s, and after that it was late and I was unable to finish it. So I am now finishing this up (started at 5:30AM when I woke up, and now finishing it at 7AM). And since its December 30th now, I can safely say to Drew happy birthday, as the old man is now 35. So in his honor, make sure you listen to some of his podcasts and mentally give him a shout out and happy birthday.

And now onto the lists!

Boneshire Brew Works:

Beers:

2019 Holiday Reserve
The Hog

Beer: 2019 Holiday Reserve
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: What we have here is a small Christmas miracle! This year’s batch of Holiday Reserve is a NEIPA brewed with 12 varieties of hops and copious amounts of Flaked Oats, Wheat, and Barley and clocks in at 8.5% abv. This batch is brewed with Apollo, Cashmere, Columbus, Simcoe, Warrior, Motueka, Amarillo, Azacca, Lemondrop, Citra, El Dorado, and Mosaic. This NEIPA is sure to please everyone for the holidays.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: The Hog
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Triple
ABV: 9.8%
IBU: 51
Untappd Write-Up: Our collaboration with Muggers of the year 2018-2019. Mike Luckovich and Dan Ploch dreamed up this big hoppy fruit forward IPA. Brewed with Simcoe, Amarillo, Zythos, and Citra hops.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.16 (as of 12.30.19)

The Vegetable Hunter

Brother of Thor!
Today’s Tom Sawyer

Beer: Brother of Thor!
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 27
Untappd Write-Up: Hoppy IPA with the Viking/Norwegian yeast strain Loki.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Today’s Tom Sawyer
Brewery: The Vegetable Hunter
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: West Coast IPA – Slappin’ da bass hops! Nugget, Equinox, Citra, Amarillo, and Columbus hops.
Drew’s Comments: Good, hoppy, tasty.
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

The Millworks

Market Day Session IPA
Winter Saison
Cherrywood Rauchbier
Kiwi Berry Gose
Triple IPA

Beer: Market Day Session IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Session / India Session Ale
ABV: 5%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Light body, hop forward ale. Orange-golden in color. Floral and citrus in the aroma and flavor. Restrained bitterness that is noticeable but not overwhelming. Easy drinking, lower alcohol session ale.

Malts: Pale, Vienna, Cara Pils

Hops: Nugget, Cascade, Chinook, Crystal
Drew’s Comments: Tasty, crisp.
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.66 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Winter Saison
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 7.9%
IBU: 30
Untappd Write-Up: Medium body, dark spiced farmhouse ale. Deep mahogany in color, lightly spiced with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, and french oak chips. Fermented with spicy belgian saison yeast.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Cherrywood Rauchbier
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Rauchbier
ABV: 5%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Classic Rauchbier brewed with local PA Cherry Wood smoked malt. Mild smokiness balanced with sweet bready malt
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Kiwi Berry Gose
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: PA Preferred beer brewed with Deer Creek Malt and 350 lbs of Kiwi Berries from Threefold Farm
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Triple IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – Tripel
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 80
Untappd Write-Up: Full bodied IPA brewed with Amarillo, El Dorado, and Idaho 7 hops
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 12.30.19)

The Sturges Speakeasy

Goggles
Sunset

Beer: Goggles
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Goggles is a Hazy Double IPA focussing on some of our favorite hops. Brewed with a mixture of wheats and oats. Heavy handedly hopped with Galaxy and Citra. Goggles is excessively fruity and dank.
My Untappd Rating: 4.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.21 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Sunset
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Co.
Style: Porter – Other
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Sunset is a Chocolate Porter brewed with layers of dark and chocolate malts, rested on Cacao Nibs from Ghana. Expect a rich porter layered with deep chocolate flavor reflecting both dark and milk chocolates. Brewed for the early winter sunsets and long dark nights.
My Untappd Rating: 4.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.67 (as of 12.30.19)

ZeroDay Brewing

Automatic Refresher
Financial Panther
Accidental Fluffer
Grievance
Smooth Metal
Mister Bubz
North St. Stout
ZeroDay Dunkel

Beer: Automatic Refresher
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Hard Seltzer
ABV: 5%
IBU: 0
Untappd Write-Up: Hard Seltzer brewed for you! We brewed a blank Hard Seltzer and provide the flavors for you to add how you please!
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Financial Panther
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 47
Untappd Write-Up: Inspired by the hard work it takes to not only make the beer, but the prowess required to run the business, we are excited to release Financial Panther, our newest IPA double dry hopped with copious amounts of Motueka from New Zealand. With notes of crushed lime and bright citrus, it’s sure to start your weekend right.
Drew’s Comments: Had this before, second favorite from ZeroDay behind Mango Hab
My Untappd Rating (from previous time): 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Accidental Fluffer
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Malt Liquor
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A Zeroday holiday classic, Accidental Fluffer is one of our most creative libations. Peppermint flavor and aromas shine in this malt beverage from the addition of pounds of candy canes in the fermenter. This fresh, minty characteristic is complemented by a sweetness derived from a light grain bill, milk sugar, and copious amounts of Marshmallow Fluff.
My Untappd Rating: 3.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.36 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Grievance
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Smooth Metal
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Red Ale – Other
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 50
Untappd Write-Up: Smooth Metal showcases a balance between a smooth caramel malt backbone and an assertive floral hop bitterness. The American grown Nugget and Cascade hops provide a classic hop character for this full-bodied ale. Smooth Metal is soft spoken at first, but definitely has a lot to say.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.65 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: Mister Bubz
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Dunkelweizen
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 16
Untappd Write-Up: Our dunkelweizen is brewed to the traditional German style. This dark wheat ale (“dunkel” means “dark” and “weizen” means “wheat” in German) is a wheat-based beer with dark malt components. While the malt supports a smooth backbone, the yeast is what shines in this beer. Banana and clove aromas and flavors really standout in this dark brown easy-drinking wheat beer.
My Untappd Rating: 3.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.46 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: North St. Stout
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Write-Up: A vanilla-latte inspired Stout brewed in collaboration with the Elementary Coffee Co.
My Untappd Rating: 4
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 12.30.19)

Beer: ZeroDay Dunkel
Brewery: ZeroDay Brewing Co.
Style: Lager – Munich – Dunkel
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: Light in body, dark in color, this Munich Dunkel brings forth notes of roasted malts and chocolate.
My Untappd Rating: 3.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 12.30.19)

Hopefully you enjoyed this travelogue of our jumpings and hoppins around of Harrisburg. Was a fun day for us, and we do this somewhat often (less now as we get older though). Hopefully there will be more articles like this in the future of more different / diverse places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, etc. I’m looking forward to 2020 and hoping it has a lot more great breweries in store!

For some other articles and beer reviews and brewery reviews, you can check out these past written articles:

As always, there is tons of things to see, read, and do here on the blog. You can also head over and listen to the podcasts me and my friends – Drew, Esteban, Dan, Andrew, and Andy all have done and created. We talk about beer, movies, pop culture, TV, you name it. You can see the podcast listings here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…

Please help us out with word of mouth, share, like, comment, re-tweet, re-blog, whatever works for you. We love to hear from you guys, so please leave a comment. There is still time to get in what you think was the best beer or breweries of 2019, as I’m hoping to have that article fully done and up before the end of 2019. Fingers crossed!

Thank you for reading this long, rambling, blog post. I know its a bit different than some of our past articles. I’m looking to try and expand what all this blog has to offer, so there’ll be tons of different times of articles to read in the future. Not just beer reviews, but brewery reviews, beer related book reviews, home brewing articles, hop growing articles, beer event reviews, news, brewery opening news, travelogues, and so much more!

I have a packed schedule coming up. Looking like at the end of the day on New Years Day I’ll be doing a LOST podcast, Seasons 1 and 2, and then on January 2nd, me and Josh are traveling to Mellow Mink to do a write-up and have some fun with the head brewer Matt Miller. So be on the look out for that. That should be lots of fun!

I also just want to give a shout out – we just hit 100 Followers on Twitter. Thank you all so much for subscribing and following us on Twitter! If you aren’t following us already, you can click here: The Beer Thrillers on Twitter and follow us. That way you won’t miss any great announcements, pictures, and updates! You can also follow us on Facebook at: The Beer Thrillers on Facebook. Thank you everyone!

As always, thank you everyone for reading, and cheers, and Happy New Year!

-B. Kline

Brewery Review: Cushwa Brewing Company

BKline — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 03:49:18 +0000

Cushwa Brewing Company, in Williamsport, Maryland

I’m sure most of you out there by now have heard the name “Cushwa Brewing Company” or at least “Cushwa”, as they are quickly gaining a reputation in the brewing world, especially in the day and age of ‘haze craze’. And for good reasons too! All of the beers I’ve had from them (six in total) have been phenomenal and top notch.

I first heard of Cushwa prior to March 2018 when I saw their release of a can artwork for an upcoming beer of their’s – “Peace Among Worlds”. I got to try it (can muled up from Maryland) in March, and it was fantastic.

Peace Among Worlds – Cushwa and Beltway Brewing’s colab together from 2018.

As a fan of Rick and Morty (but don’t worry, not one of those annoying fans) I had to give it a try, and I was very happy with it, and very much enjoyed it. And as my first Cushwa I made sure to keep them bookmarked for future beers (can releases) and a future brewery visit.

(By the way, Peace Among Worlds was very positively reviewed and loved, getting a 4.13 overall global rating since it was released.)

And so, finally, I had my chance to try out the brewery yesterday after a visit to Antietam Battlefield in nearby (to Williamsport) Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump from the battlefield.

So after a long, sweltering hot day in early August, with two young (a day shy of being 12, and a 10 year old) daughters, and after our customary ‘leaving a place bathroom break’ for my 10 year old (she has the bladder of a 93 year old man), I made my way to Cushwa.

Located amongst a plethora of businesses in a strip mall on Governor Road, next to Robbie’s Billards, you’ll find Cushwa Brewing Company (the last building on the strip, to the far left when facing the front). There is ample parking in the front, and the back.

The front of Cushwa Brewing Company.

So, let’s break down Cushwa Brewing Company, by some statistics, provided by the Untappd page on them.

First, their a Microbrewery from Williamsport, Maryland. As of 8.15.19 they have received a total of 45,792 check-ins, with 8,647 of them being unique. In August they are currently up to 929 check-ins total (glad I could contribute 4 of them). They have produced a total of 144 unique beers, and have a global Untappd rating of 4.08. Their Untappd page can be found here: https://untappd.com/CushwaBrewingCompany

Their Untappd description reads: Cushwa Brewing Company is a microbrewery located along the C&O Canal in Williamsport, MD. We are passionate in creating innovative beer offerings that we are proud for you to experience and share with friends. Our mission is simple: Exceptional Beer. Positive Impact. Respect. Their Untappd description reads:

As befitting their strip mall location, they do have a small brewery set-up. The seating area is rather large with multiple styles of chairs and tables, at various heights, and they have the bar in the very front.

Food seemed to be BYOF with occasional food trucks that would appear (there wasn’t much signage on this, and not being a foodie, I didn’t do the biggest look-around, plus, unfortunately with the girls in tow, I was on a short leash time wise). They did seem to have an open policy with dogs (saw two indoors while there, and saw one leaving as I pulled up to park).

Cushwa Brewing Area as seen from the bar.

It had a very open vibe to the bar and brewery. Numerous patrons came up to the two bartenders and were recognized by name, I was called out and asked how I was doing as soon as I walked in the door by the female bartender (and thats a good 20 feet from door to bar).

They offer draft, flights of 1-8, crowlers, and cans when they’ve done their canning runs. Their flights are on a per-beer basis as for pay, the stout was 3.50$ for a 4oz pour, whereas their Cushwa Light was 2.00$ for a 4oz pour. All beers were 6$ for the draft – exception being the stout which was 7$ – but the pour sizes varied based on style/abv.

Due to my limited time, I did a quick flight of four, and stuck with mostly the cheaper and lighter beers. My flight consisted of : Ricky Clicks (which was brand new, having just been tapped earlier yesterday), Fog at Daybreak, Abundance of Caution, and Cushwa Light.

My flight of 4 at Cushwa Brewing. You can do a flight of anywhere from 1-8 beers.

Spoiler alert: all four were extremely good and well done. I won’t do a complete break-down of the four beers that I tried, because that will be a future blog post, don’t worry, but I will give a quick “its this style, this was my rating” and move on.

Risky Clicks:
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: 30
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.06 (as of 8.15.19)

Fog at Daybreak
Style: Pale Ale – New England
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 67
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 8.15.19)

Abundance of Caution
Style: Pale Ale – New England
ABV: 6%
IBU: 30
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.14 (as of 8.15.19)

Cushwa Light
Style: Cream Ale
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 16
My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.56 (as of 8.15.19)

Apparently with my phone crashing today, I wasn’t able to upload the last two pics I had taken of the Cushwa building. One was a view of the brewery from the hallway leading into the bathroom, the other was the proto-typical bathroom “wall of stickers” which had two locals on the wall (Boneshire Brew Works and Moo-Duck Brewing Company). Sadly, with my phone taking a massive dump tonight, it seems those pictures were/are lost to the sands of time. (Unless by miracle Verizon can figure out something tomorrow for me, who knows.)

But I certainly can’t recommend this place enough. If you find yourself visiting Antietam or Sharpsburg or Williamsport (MD) you need to stop in. From the Hershey-Harrisburg area its about a one hour and forty minute drive. From Antietam / Sharpsburg its about a fifteen to twenty minute drive. The beers are fantastic, the atmosphere is great, the staff was super friendly and helpful, so all are aces in my book, and means this is definitely a stop worth making.

So, until next time, which… well… I find myself backlogged once again with a massive amount of content to post. So much for my week off involving lots of blog updates and posts. It seems the busier I am the busier the blog is, which means the writing isn’t as busy.

Tomorrow morning is a canning run at Tattered Flag, so hopefully I’ll be able to post a recap of that. As well as finish my hop harvest, which will also hopefully involve another blog post about that, and then in the evening Boneshire and Harris Family Brewing is releasing their smokey collab; which…. fingers crossed, will result in a third blog post, or at least another beer review in the near future.

Plus with the beer mail I received from Parish, Southern Prohibition, and Natchez, means I should have more and more beer reviews in the near future. As well of course the beer flight I showed in this brewery review.

So be on the lookout for plenty of upcoming content everyone! In the meantime stay hydrated! It is the dog days of August afterall!

-B. Kline

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